January 15, 2014

Wednesday Briefs: Hope #16

Welcome to
Wednesday Briefs, where authors post free fiction of 1000 words or
less each week. I used this prompt:"Can
things get any worse?"

Hope #16

Here I was,
sitting with a puppy who was supposed to be Shane, cradling him in my
arms after accusing him of leaving me alone.

“Can
things get any worse?” I asked. Shane gazed at me, his head
slightly tilted to the left side. One of his ears was perked and the
other one flopped, which caused me to smile despite the guilt nagging
at me.

“I
didn't mean it like that. It's just... not a good feeling, letting my
anger get the better of me.” I shrugged and stared at nothing in
particular until I couldn't stand it anymore. When I looked back at
Shane, he swiped his tongue over my hand, then gave it a sharp nip.

“Ow!
You don't have to go all animalistic. I'm glad you're here. No,
that's not the right word. I'm... I'm... well, I don't know what I'm
feeling exactly at the moment but I'm sure it's more than simple
happiness. I missed you so much.” I whispered the last sentence. I
tapped his nose when he barked and wiggled. He got the gist and
quieted down immediately. “Even if you could never become human
again, I'd never let you go again.”

Shane
bounded to his feet, climbed up my chest and licked my face. I
laughed and did my best to keep him from toppling, or ripping my
shirt open with his claws.

“I
wouldn't,” I repeated when Shane pressed his head on my shoulder,
somehow similar to how he'd done it before his death—or what had
seemed like his death—and I cupped the back of it. A shiver ran
through my body at the familiarity of the gesture. Sure, I'd rather
have Shane in his human form, but anything was better than to be
without him at all.

We spent some
time cuddled together like this, then I rose with him in my arms and
walked back to the table with the tiles. “Didn't you want me to
call someone?”

Shane
thumped his tail once and, after I set him down on the table, he
spelled MARISA. I drew a blank.

“Marisa?”
I asked. “Is that a person? A shop? A... something? You have to
help me because this means nothing to me.”

He
plunked down on the table, expelling a long-drawn breath. When I
raised my hands in a show of surrender, he growled, got up again, and
shoved pieces aside with more force than necessary.

“I take it
I'm slow on the uptake?” I said because anything was better than
standing around, feeling awkward. Shane made a sound that could've
been another growl, or maybe an annoyed huff, but he didn't look
around. Instead he brought some letters in a new order.

AUNT, it
read. Aunt? Oh! “Your aunt Marisa? The one you don't like talking
to?”

Shane knocked
his tail once on the table and gazed at me expectantly.

“Uh,
am I supposed to call her?” When he affirmed my suggestion, I
asked, “What am I supposed to tell her? Did you know Shane isn't
dead? He's still alive but he can't talk to you because at the moment
he's a German Shepherd puppy?”

Shane barked
and showed me yes with his tail. I blinked at him. “For real?”

He slumped
down on the table with all four limbs stretched away from him and
gazed at me with an expression I remembered. I put my hands on my
hips and scowled at him. “Hey, go easy on me here, okay? I'll get
the phone and call her.”

On my way to
the phone I muttered, “We'll see how it goes. I hope she doesn't
call an ambulance. Normal people would. I would if it was someone
else telling me their dead lover reappeared as a dog. Geez, I can't
believe I'm doing this.”

Shane
jumped around me as I dug for the registry in one of the kitchen
drawers. It took me about ten minutes to find Marisa's number since I
couldn't recall her last name at all. With trembling fingers, I
punched in her number and flinched when she picked up after the
second ring.

It was now or
never. “Hello Marisa, this is Gil, Shane's boyfriend. I need to
talk to you.”

10 comments:

Will Marisa have some answers? Will she know the why's? I have some thoughts, some ideas of where this might be going, but I maybe totally wrong too! Can't wait for next Wednesday! Maybe they can up the word count? LOL. I'll be back next week. Thanks Chris T. Kat!